Stephanie Rose is more than just another notable singer emerging from the Great White North; there’s plenty of evidence on Sprout, her second EP, Rose is a possibly transformative talent capable, nonetheless, of reaffirming the genre’s traditional strength while always keeping a foot in the present. Six songs fits the model of the modern EP quite well and Rose gains a lot from some excellent production courtesy of RyLee Madison and Clay Krasner, both respected figures in the modern country scene. The beating heart of the album, though, is surely a dual organ – Rose’s voice and the song sustaining our attention throughout. Rose is an observer of life and impressive maturity further enhances the songwriting – she’s garnered a reputation for the storytelling quality of her songs and these six included on Sprout proves it is well deserved.

Crunchy guitars deliver guttural brutality in Midway, the all new album from Go Time!, but they find themselves cornered by equally strong lyrics that espouse a smart cerebral prose and beg for us to analyze the depth of their narratives a bit more than we normally would. Go Time! have been flying under the radar of most mainstream rock fans for a minute now, but in that time they’ve been quietly building up quite the sterling reputation in the underground and cultivating a signature sound. All of their hard work comes to fruition in this latest disc, which you could make an argument for being their most complete and robustly packaged collection of songs yet.